Track-cleaner.



C. SCHEIDENI TRACK CLEANER.

APPLICATION FILED DEC-27.1913.

Patented my 20, 1915..

2' SHEETS-SHEET] 11v VENTOR. 5AM, flmm v MZMIQ A TTDHNE VS.

C. SCHEIDEN.

TRACK CLEANER.

APPLICMION FILED 01:12.21, 1913.

Pafented July 20,, 1915.

2 SHEETS.-SHEET 2.

11v VEN TOR. 40A);-

haw Z BY ATE CHARLES SCHEIDEN, 0F DENVER, COLORADQ.

TRACK-CLEANER.

To all 1071 o m it may concern.

Be it known that I, (hunnns Scmnnnn, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city and county of Denver and State of Colorado, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in 'lrach-Oleaners; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which'it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to improvements in means for clearing a roadway through snow, and while it is especially designed for the purpose of clearing street railway and steam railroad tracks, it may be also used to open up a plain roadway by the employment of suitable propulsion means, such as a gasolene motor or other engine. For the purpose of simplicity of illustration, however, 1 am simply describing my invention as being applied to the use of clearing street railway tracks during heavy snow storms, wherein the power applied for driving my machine is obtained through a suitable trolley (not shown) completing an electric circuit between a trolley wire and an electric motor mounted on a truck forming a part of the in'iproved track cleaner.

Collectively speaking, the main object of the invention consists in the employment of particular form of shovel extending transversely of the track orpath to be cleared, and cooperating with a suitable conveyer for discharging the shoreled snow to one side of the track. and which conveyer may be swung around in substantially the longitudinal plane of its supporting truck, to enable the machi no to be properly housed when not in use, without taking up too much room.

Another object of the invention is to em ploy a rotary brush in combination with the shovel and conveyor to sweep the track clean of snow -when the greater quantity of snow has been shoveled oil and conveyed and dumped a substantial distance to one side of the track or roadway being opened. By my invention, and by having the conveyer inclining upwardly at a proper angle, means are provided for effectively shoveling away snow of practically any depth.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a machine that is powerful and effective in action, but which is comparatively cheap to construct and operate, and

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed December 27, 1913.

vclining portion, and showing in sectioi Patented July 2%, Serial No. 809,020.

which at the same time is very simple, strong and durable in structure, preventin" the same from readily getting out of ore.

With these principal and other objects in view, the invention, therefore, consists of the novel arrangement and combination o parts, which will more fully appear from the following description, and the essential features of novelty will be more particularlv and succinctly pointed out in the appended claims. It will be obvious, however, that minor structural equivalents may be employed without departing from the spirit of the invention, and without sacrificing any of the vital principles thereof, and wliii; the invention is not limited, therefore, to the exact details shown and described, i l for the purpose of disc azure reference had to the accompanyin drawings illusti ing a practical embodiment of the same which drawings like clniracters designa e the same parts in several views, and in which Figure l is a view in plan 01. my improved so machine, a part of the conveyer casing hen broken away to show the discharge end or the shovel, and the conveyer being also shown, in dotted lines, in the posit-iwhich it may be swung when the IllllClillfL housed. Fig. 2 is view in side elevation, partly broken away to show the horizont portion of the shovel relatively to the stirrup mounted on each side of the trucl; for jacketing the inner ends of braces or supporting plates fo. the front of the shovel. Fig. 3 is a view in front elevation, the e veyer and truck being shown in dotted lint Fig. l is'a vertical cross sectional view on the line -l& of Fig. 1. Fig. 5 is a trail verse vertical cross sectional view line of Fig. trand Fig. 6 is a do cross sectional view on the line 6-- F Any suitable vehicle or support may employed in carrying out my invention, in the drawings l have simply shown a truck comprising the framework 1, wheels 2 and supporting any suitable motor or engine, shown conventionally in the drawings properly support a shovel and conveyer hereinafter referred to.

Referring particularly to Figs. 2 and 6, on. the underneath face of the ends of'the projecting beams l there is mounted a U- shaped stirrup 5, one of which stirrups is provided for each beam, and the said stirrups straddles said beams l as shown Fig. 6, and are securely bolted thereto by means of the bolts 6, in such manner as to leave a space or housing between the beams 4: and the bottom of the stirrup, which housing is adapted to contain the ends of a pair of brace bars, in the form of angle irons, to support the forward end of the shovel. hereinafter referred to. As shown more particularly in Fig. 2, these brace bars or angle irons consist of a pair of flat members, the upper one of which has a horizontal arm 7 and a forward downwardly inclined arm 8 disposed at an angle coincident with the desired inclination of the shovel. The other brace or angle bar consists of a horizontal arm 9 bent downwardly, as at 10, and further bent, as at 11', at an angle parallel to the arm 8, the bent portion 12 between the positions l0 and 11 being spaced away and forming a trussing member opposite the bend 13 of the upper angle bar 78. The arms 7 and 9 of the angle bars are bolted or riveted together as alt/-14, and the inner end projected within the housing of the stirrup 5, and the (lownwa-rdly inclining arm 8 of the upper angle bar is bolted or riveted as at 15, to the bottom of the shovel before referred to. This shovel is one of the primary features of the invention in combination with proper propulsive and conveyor means, and the shovel consists of a bottom '16, having vertical side walls 17 which converge upwardly and inwardly, terminating in a horizontally disposed dis charge plate 18, which discharge plate, in plan View, is in the nature of right-angled triangle, the hypotenuse edge of which, 19,

extends transversely across the conveyer hereinafter referred to, for an object which will be later described; The side wall 17 of the shovel, on one side terminates at the apex 2O pl lthe triangular discharge plate 18,

while the jother side wall 17 of the shovel CQDtlHHQS as at 21, forming a wall contiguojis with the base of the triangular dis- ..charge plate 18, and extends transversely across the conveyer bel'ore referred to.

fl rom the foregoing and thedrawings, 1t

will be clearly seen that the showel is in the form oi. a scoop, the front edge 22 of which is of s'uflicient width to extend across the track to be cleared, where the invention is used in connection with the clearing of a street railway or steam railroad track.

The conveyer, more clearly shown in Figs. 1 and 4, consists of side plates 24: having at each end a transverse roller 25, over which ,tlieri ht hand pintle, 45, of the passes a flexible belt 26, which may be proalso arranged a plurality of rollers 28 on' which the upper portion of the endless belt rides. As shown more clearly in Fig. 4:, this conveyer may be provided with a casing or cover 29, the rear wall of which extends adjacent the side sill or beam 4-, but it and the lower end of the conveyer are so.disposed with relation to the adjacent side sill that the conveyer may be swung upwardly in an are that will allow it to pass by the side sill, when it is desired to swing the conveyer from its transverse position to a position longitudinal of the truck. veyer inclines upwardly at an angle sufficient to properly discharge the shoveled snowat a height above the level of the snow, and the upper end of the conveyer has its side walls pivotally mounted between the arms 30 of a clevis or bifurcated member, by means of the pivot pin or bolt 31. The clevis or bifurcatedmeinber is in turn pivot ally mounted, by means of the pin 32, on the side beam 4 of the truck, so that a universal connection is provided between the conveyer and the supporting truck, whereby the conveyer maybe elevated vertically to a horizontal position and then swung around horizontally on the pivot-32, to the position shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1. 33, designates a stud shaft mounted on the-side Wall 24 of the conveyer, as seen in Fig. '1, and 34 is a pintle carried on the end of the lower roller 25 of the conveyer. On this pintle 34 is rigidly mounted the sprocket Wheel 35, and on the stud shaft 33 there is loosely mounted an idle s rocket wheel 36, said sprocket wheel 36 being provided with a The conmember 38 carried by the on of ashaft 39, journaled on the truck and connected at its other end to a suitable motor 40, which is preferably operated independently of the main motor 3. 41 is a sprocket chain cooperating with the sprocket wheels 35 and 36, and 4:2 is a clutch lever for throwing the clutch members 37 and 38 into and out of clutch. 4-3 represents a pair of hangers, one on each side of the truck'frame, and which hangers are slotted at their lower ends, as at 4-4, to receive pintles 45 of a rotatable brush &6 suspended by means of chains 47, brush being provic ed ,with a sprocket wheel 46 connected by means of a sprocket chain 47, with a sprocket wheel148 mounted on ashaft 49,

suitably supported and geared teat-he motor the present invention.

memes v 39 and the conveyor driving mechanism is merely shown diagrammatically, as are also other constructions might be used, and the details of these features form no part of It may also be stated that While the shaft 39' may be geared up to the main motor 3, instead oi. providing an independent motor 40, still it is desirable to provide a separate motor 40: inorder that the speed of the conveyor may be regulated relatively to the travel of the truck and shovel, and, as a matter of fact, the conveyor is driven much more rapidlythan the advancing shovel, and by the arrangement shown is driven quite independently of the main motor.

From the foregoing description and from the drawings, it is believed that the operation of my improved track cleaner is obvious, but it might briefly be stated that upon the ad- Vance of the machine the snow is forced up the inclined shovel onto the triangular discharge plate 18, the discharge edge of which extends diagonally across the conveyor from one side of the shovel to the other side thereof, and

by this means the advancing ribbon or sheet of snow is caused to begin to discharge at the right hand side of the machine at the position 20 in advance of the discharge from the left hand side of the machine at the position 21, so that the advancing snow is evenly distributed upon the conveyor clear across the same, preventing the snow from being banked up in one position thereon. The endless conveyer being operated at a speed considerably greater than the move ment of the advancing machine, the snow is quickly and readily conveyed and discharged at the right hand side of the machine, considerable distance clear of the track, and the rotary brush 46 sweeps clean the roadway below the position of the front edge 22 of the shovel.

I an; aware of the fact that a number of snow plows have been invented, which are designed to clear tracks, with the same broad aim in View as the present inventioin'bnt my invention does not consist of a snow plow but is believed to be new departure Where by means are provided for shoveling oil the snow by an actual shoveling process, Where by each shovel full, as it were, is thrown. on

I claim is:

nontai sheli formed i the conveyer and discharged at the side of the machine, so that at no time is there any great obstruction to-the advance of the ma chine through the snow.

Havingthus described the invention, What i 50 I 1.. In a machine or the character described, including a supporting vehicle, means for said vehicle, and an upwardly inclined endless belt eonreyer disposed transversely oi" said vehicle and terminating be yond the side thereof; the combination of an upwardly inclined shovel, comprising a fiat'uncovered shovel blade, terminating at its upper end in a horizci'itally disposed triangu lar shelf, forming an integral continuation oi said shovel blade, and having a rearwardly disposed diagonal discharge edge extending from one side of the shovel to the other side thereof, andiextending entirely across the lower end of said'conveyer, the Whole pro viding an uncovered, uninterrupted and unobstructed passageway for the ascending shoveled snow; and means for driving said conveyor, substantially as described,

In a'machine of the character described, including a supporting vehicle, means for driving said' vehicle, and upwardly inclined endless belt conveyor disposed trans-- versely of said vehicle and terminating be yond the side thereof combination of an upwardly inclined, supported, fiat shovel blade, provides. vv vertical side walls, an open upper end, open to for its entire length, vId r t shovel bl do terminating in a nori- 5) 0 1 m. ano.

Witnesses Flow, 

